


House of Ri asides

by Thorinsmut



Series: the House of Ri [2]
Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Angst, Brothers stick together, Complete, Family Secrets, Gen, Guilt, M/M, Misunderstandings, Protective brothers, side story collection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-31
Updated: 2013-10-31
Packaged: 2017-12-30 16:50:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,333
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1021078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thorinsmut/pseuds/Thorinsmut
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bits and pieces to fill in around the edges in The Sons of the House of Ri</p><p>Chapter 1 - Dori bails Nori out of jail - from Nori's perspective.<br/>Chapter 2 - his brothers would like you to know that messing with Dori is a <i>bad idea</i>.<br/>Chapter 3 - Ori would like to know where he came from.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. mistakes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> chapter 2 from Nori's perspective. 
> 
> Warnings for violence and injury and overwhelming guilt.

Nori didn't know what else to _do_.

He hopelessly pressed the knot of his hair into the other Dwarf's hand and described how to find Dori.

The knot asked for help that Nori knew he couldn't hope to get, but he didn't know what else to do. He'd carried it for years, a last failsafe he'd never thought he would have to use.

The Dwarf nodded and retreated from the bars of Nori's cell before the guard could notice. Nori slumped back against the wall, cradling his broken right hand to his chest. Tomorrow, the other Dwarf would be set free, and Nori calculated the number of days before Dori _wouldn't_ come for him.

Dori had always taken care of him. Dori had always been there, paying for Nori's mistakes without saying a word – but not this time. Not this time.

Nori was useless with a broken hand, and Dori wouldn't be coming for him, and there was no one else Nori could go to for help.

Dori wasn't going to come for him, but he didn't _know_ what else to do.

 

It was personal, this arrest.

Nori had escaped _this_ guard one too many times, taunted him, slipped out of the jail right under his nose to make him look foolish.

Nori had shrieked, a sound like an injured rabbit he hadn't _known_ his throat could produce, when he felt the delicate bones of his right hand _snap_ under the guard's boots.

The arrest had been a nightmare of fists and boots, and Nori didn't get up when they finally threw him into a cell.

He still had his lockpicks and knives but _his hand was broken_ and he _couldn't..._

He realized from far away that it was _his_ voice keening as he curled around his hand on the cold floor, rocking back and forth.

The Dwarf in the next cell over finally managed to get his attention and had him bite down hard on his own sleeve while she reset the bones of his hand for him through the bars.

He'd thought having it _broken_ had hurt.

At least he didn't faint, and he made it to the bucket they provided for a chamber pot before he threw up.

He curled up on the musty pallet, facing the wall so no one could see his face, and all he wanted in the whole world was _Dori_.

But Dori had made it very clear that he _would not_ help Nori if he got himself in trouble like this.

This was the limit Dori had set, and Dori wasn't going to pay for it this time.

Nori had thought he was good enough not to get caught. He'd made a mistake coming to this town, hadn't been cautious enough of the guard who hated him... and Nori was paying for it this time because Dori wasn't going to.

Nori made a mistake and Dori paid for it. That's the way it had been his whole life. He didn't remember much of Erebor, but one of his few memories was of having broken something – he couldn't remember what now – and being afraid. Dori had wiped his tears away and told him the story they would tell their parents that placed half the blame on Dori instead of all on Nori where it belonged. As the elder sibling Dori had taken the brunt of the punishment, and Nori _loved_ him.

In the camps, if Nori got into a fight Dori was always there to protect him and soothe everyone's feelings until no one felt like beating Nori up anymore.

After they left the camps, if Nori made Dori lose a client and they didn't have enough money, it was Dori who went hungry.

Nori made a mistake, and Dori paid for it without saying a word.

It had always been that way, but Nori got old enough to know it wasn't _right_ , and he tried to make it better. He loved Dori and he was small and sneaky and he could make sure that Dori didn't go cold or hungry. He could make sure that Dori always had the supplies he needed. Nori learned to take care of himself so he wasn't always having to depend on Dori to protect him.

When he thought he could take care of himself he tried to stop living off of Dori. He tried to have his own separate life, but even that wasn't enough.

Nori made a mistake, and Dori took the baby in without question. He wrapped the baby in their mother's shawl and told Nori the story they would tell, a story that took all blame away from Nori. All Dori said, when Nori told him they were going to have to run away in the night and leave everything he had built for himself, was that they would need a goat – and Nori _loved_ him.

Nori made a mistake, and Dori paid for it with a smile the way he always had. After something _that big_ Nori had promised himself he _wouldn't_ , ever again, let Dori pay for him. He loved Dori like air and water, like solid stone under his boots, and he didn't ever want Dori to have to pay for his mistakes again.

But here he was, aching everywhere, curled up on a lumpy prison pallet with his face to the wall so no one could see his tears, wishing more than anything in the world that Dori would come for him.

He wouldn't though. Not this time.

Dori wouldn't come for him.

He was alone.

 

Nori was leaning against the stone wall of his cell, two days before he calculated Dori _wouldn't_ come for him, playing word games with Dwarves in nearby cells. Throwing ridiculous puns back and forth at least distracted him from the ache of his bruises and the agonizing throb of his heartbeat in his hand a little.

He had a piece of straw, which he was painstakingly juggling through the awkward fingers of his left hand.

Having only one good hand had been a mistake, when a hand was so very easy to break. He could have been out of here already if he was as good with his left hand as his right.

The guard who'd caught him, thankfully, had little to do with him – no more than an occasional stray kick. Nori had learned very fast how to take enough of it to keep the guard happy while rolling most of it off, but the bruises still added up.

The other Dwarves in the jail had been very kind to Nori, probably because they were all glad they weren't _him._

Silence fell instantly as the guards came in, the jingling of the keys meaning _someone_ was being set free. Nori closed his eyes. It wasn't going to be him. It wasn't going to be him. Dori _wasn't_ going to pay for him and no one else in the world cared about him.

The steps of the guards and the jingling keys came closer and closer... and stopped right in front of Nori's cell. The sharply increasing pain in his hand echoed the pounding of his heart as he opened his eyes to see them opening his cell.

“C'mon.” They didn't have to say it twice, Nori was on his feet and biting back his whimpers as they grabbed his bruised arms to lead him out.

Dori had come for him.

Dori _had_ come for him, Dori had come for him faster than he'd thought possible, and Nori was going to hug him and never let go. He was going to go home and climb right into bed with Dori and Ori, even though it was squishy for three people, and sleep for a week. He was going to steal the very best of _everything_ for Dori, so Dori never wanted for anything ever again, because Dori had _come for him_.

He'd never been so happy in his _life..._ he might cry...

Then he _saw_ Dori, and all Nori wanted was to crawl back into his cell and die.

Bad enough that Ori was crying and Dori had tears on his cheeks – and horrifying that Dori had had to disguise himself as a dam when he hated that _so much_ – it was the look on his face that killed Nori.

Nori never thought he'd see _hate_ on Dori's face.

He stumbled when the guards let him go, fighting the instinct to run away, to go back to his cell because he didn't _deserve_ that Dori had come all this way for him and paid for him. Instead he did what the guards would expect of him and hugged Dori and Ori both.

They hugged him back and it stung, it _hurt_ because it couldn't be real, not after what he'd seen on Dori's face.

They were out, somehow, in a quiet alley and Nori was awkwardly trying to help Dori look like himself, trying to make things _right_ again. Dori said his name, sharp tone that he'd _never_ used on Nori before, and Nori ran away. Nori ran away like the coward he was, because he would die if he heard it. He would _die_ if Dori disowned him, or sent him away.

Nori ran away to one of the few hiding spots that he could _reach_ one-handed, curling up with his face hidden behind his knees.

He _loved_ Dori and Ori, and they couldn't tell him to stay away from them if he couldn't _hear_ them.

He'd finally made a mistake that Dori couldn't forgive him for.


	2. warning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> His brothers would like you to know that messing with Dori is a _bad idea_.
> 
> Set right after chapter 3

Balin knew he'd made a terrible mistake _before_ Dori's brothers confronted him. He'd... he had no excuse. He'd seen what he wanted to see, and clearly that had not been what was _there_.

It was well within Dori's rights to challenge him in the courts for a false courtship, or even to a _duel,_ and he did not think he would win. Before the courts all the evidence was in Dori's favor, and the thought of dueling against _Dori_ who thought nothing of lifting a fully loaded oxcart one-handed to place a block under it so he could repair the wheel... no, an old warrior like Balin could not hope to compete with a Dwarf like Dori.

He had dealt a terrible hurt to Dori, and he _knew_ that even before Dori's brothers found him. He had known it since seeing the pain of betrayal on Dori's face as he was escorted to the doorstep.

Nori found him first, a quiet voice behind him in the dark.

“I thought I _liked_ you.” The tone was a hard sneer, and he'd spun to see the oft-wandering middle brother leaning against a wall, baring his teeth in a smile that said nothing about mirth and everything about violence.

“Stay away from my brother,” he warned quietly. “The house of Ri no longer welcomes _you_. I don't know how blind you are to think what you thought about Dori. Did you remember him smiling and curtsying in Erebor's bright halls? I remember it too, and I remember him crying in despair when he didn't think anyone was watching. Did you remember the tears of the dams as they changed their braids in the camps, because it was the only thing they could think to do? I remember that, and I remember Dori _smiling_ for the first time since the Dragon as he tore his dresses into shreds.”

Nori was close now, very close, his eyes bright and sharp. He dropped his voice low. “Someday, when you decide to actually _think_ for a change, ask yourself _which_ of his brothers Ori favors. Ask yourself how much Dori has given up for me, how much he's done for me, how much he's paid for _my_ mistakes without ever saying a word... then ask yourself what I wouldn't do for him.”

There was a pause, with Nori leaning in far too close for comfort with murder in his eyes. “The answer's _nothing_.” Nori whispered, letting that sink in for one too-long moment he stepped back. “Stay away from my brother,” Nori warned again, the twist of his smile freezing something in Balin's chest as the young Dwarf stepped back to disappear into the shadows.

Nori had never even touched the handles of his knives, but Balin was chilled through.

How had he allowed himself to be _so wrong_?

 

As bad as Nori had been, Ori was worse. Little Ori who was always so friendly and hardworking, now looking up at him with open hostility in his eyes and his fists clenched. “I wouldn't still be your apprentice if there was _any_ other Master Scribe in Ered Luin,” Ori told him. “You made Dori _cry_.” His jaw clenched at the injustice of that, “Stay away from Dori. If you _ever_ hurt him again I'll... I'll _burn the library down_.”

Balin flinched from the threat, there was enough anger in young Ori's eyes that he couldn't help but believe he'd follow through, and Ori smiled a hard smile _just_ like Nori's. “I wish Dori _hadn't_ told Nori not to kill you,” he finished coldly, then turned and gathered up his work for the day, ignoring Balin completely.

And Balin returned to his letter of apology that would _never_ be enough for the hurt he'd done.


	3. the baby

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ori would like to know where he came from. 
> 
> Set some time after Erebor is reclaimed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING for character death

“I want to know about the Dwarf who bore me,” Ori said, plopping down beside Nori. That sounded a little _off,_ but Nori grinned and threw an arm around him and began one of the stories he'd memorized about their mother.

“No,” Ori corrected. “I already know all the stories about our _mother._ I want to know about the Dwarf who _bore me_.”

Nori closed his eyes briefly and swallowed hard. Of _course_ Ori would figure it out, he'd always been _so clever_. How had anyone that smart come from _Nori?_

"How..." Nori asked.

"I worked with the records, sometimes," Ori answered. "Our mother isn't there. She never made it out of Erebor... and if it was Dori we wouldn't have needed the goat," he pointed out, ducking shyly. " _Could_ you tell me about the Dwarf who bore me, and how I came to be your brother?" He looked up at Nori pleadingly through his braids, and Nori could _never_ say no to him.

“It's not a pretty story,” Nori said quietly, brushing one of Ori's braids back from his face, looking at those warm brown eyes. “You have her eyes. They were thieves, like me, she and her husband...”

 

Nori grabbed the baby and ran. What was the _point_ of being the sneaky bastard if he couldn't sneak by and surprise his own people too? He grabbed the baby and ran faster than he'd ever known he could run, dodging a thrown knife with his heart in his throat and panic in his stomach.

He tucked the baby into his jacket, hoped he wouldn't get hurt, and ran and climbed and doubled back over and over again for _hours_ , long after the point of exhaustion, until he finally lost the pursuit.

Then he went to the only person he could think of to go to for help.

They hadn't spoken in _years_ , but Dori was still living in that little shack and he let Nori in without a second's hesitation.

 

Things had been going well, Nori had _enjoyed_ being the third to them. They fucked all the time, together and separately in any combination, and everything had been good. It had been a _good_ arrangement, they had. They worked well together, and they fit together well in bed too, and everything was good until their firstborn child came out looking like _Nori_ instead of like her husband.

Nori wasn't _that_ stupid, he'd used a sheath with her, _always,_ but maybe one of the sheaths had leaked. She told Nori it would be ok, that her husband would calm down, would get over it. After all, Nori had no legal claim on the baby. The baby would always be her husband's, and who couldn't love such a sweet baby?

He'd believed her, and he'd waited for things to calm down, to blow over. It had seemed like her husband _was_ calming down, like things were going to go back to normal, until the night a few weeks later when he got drunk – not just drunk but _drunk_ , and a few of his other thieves were riling him up over it. He'd come stumbling home angry, and he'd pointed right at the baby and spoken the words that disowned him, cast him out nameless and kinless.

She'd smacked her husband across the face, told him he didn't have the legal right to do that without _her_ permission and she'd _never_ give it.

So he pulled his knife and killed her. His thieves had been shocked, had never expected that of him, and there was some tiny amount of horrified awareness in his eyes before it was lost in his drunken bravado. He blustered something about having been betrayed – and Nori knew he was next, and he knew he had to save the baby too.

He was the sneaky one of their group of thieves, and he used it. He slid around behind and grabbed the baby and ran before anyone had time to react.

The other thieves would stand by the other Dwarf, even though he'd just killed his wife. It would all be hushed up and quieted away, and getting rid of Nori and maybe even the baby would be a part of that, so he used everything he'd ever learned in his misspent career to lose the pursuers.

Nori didn't _know_ if they would kill the baby, he couldn't imagine they _would_ , but he couldn't have imagined that he would kill his wife either. The best the baby could hope for was to be fostered out somewhere.

So Nori took him to the best Dwarf he'd ever known, the one who'd always taken care of _him_ even though he wasn't really any older than Nori than Nori was of Ori, and Dori accepted the baby without saying a word against Nori. He gave Ori a name, and claimed him _brother_.

 

“I didn't know what else to do,” Nori admitted, looking down at his knees. Ori was very quiet at his side, listening. “I didn't know the first thing about how to take care of a baby. I wouldn't even have known to get a _goat_. I knew Dori could take care of you, and he did, and you turned out... you turned out the _best_ brother anyone could hope for.”

Ori leaned against his side. “Thank you,” he said quietly.

Nori looked over at him in surprise. “You don't hate me for lying to you and-”

Ori interrupted with a snort. “Of _course_ not. I'm glad things turned out how they did... I mean, I'm very sorry she was killed... but I'm _so glad_ I have you and Dori for my brothers.”

Nori leaned over to bump foreheads affectionately with his amazing younger brother. Ori's _goodness_ he'd clearly gotten from Dori, it couldn't have come from Nori.

“I wish I'd done better by you,” Nori said. “I should have...”

“You were _young_.” Ori interrupted again, “Younger than _I_ am.”

Nori paused at that, it couldn't possibly be true but... no, the years were right. Ori was older now than Nori had been when Ori was born. “Ma'al...” he breathed in horror. “I was a _dirty_ little bastard.” He couldn't imagine _Ori_ getting up to the things he'd been doing.

Ori laughed and bumped shoulders with him, smiling, his sweet clever little brother, and Nori couldn't help but smile back.

He'd made more than his fair share of mistakes, but Ori was the only one he could say he was proud of - though it was much more Dori's fault than Nori's that Ori had turned out well. Still, _Ori_ was the thing in his life he was proudest of by far.


End file.
